South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Friday that his country was ready to sit down for talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at any time, according to Newsis news agency.
Kim made the remark during a symposium, hosted by the ruling Democratic Party in the National Assembly building, saying it would not be impossible to hold another inter-Korean summit by the end of June.
He said South Korea's position, which sees this month's inter-Korean summit necessary and desirable, was delivered to the DPRK.
As the second summit between South Korean President
Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un was held in the border village of Panmunjom on May 26 last year, just a day after the two sides promised it, the so-called "one-point" inter-Korean summit could be held within this month, the minister noted.
Kim said the "one-point" inter-Korean summit was forecast to help resume the stalled DPRK-US talks ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to Seoul later this month.
The denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been halted after the second summit between Kim and Trump ended with no agreement in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
The minister said Seoul will make efforts with patience to reactivate the
Korean Peninsula's peace process in close cooperation with neighboring countries including the United States and China.
Kim said a series of summit diplomacies, involving the leaders of the core countries relevant to the peninsula issues, happened, or would happen, in the short period of time.
The minister noted that if all the efforts are united into one, the DPRK-US denuclearization negotiations would be eventually resumed and advanced, saying the countries involved in dialogues all hoped in unison for the peninsula's complete denuclearization and the lasting peace settlement.